Socio-Economic Development - Abstracts

Human Rights and Socio-Economic Development: - The Ethiopian Case
Andargatchew Tesfaye (professor), Department of Sociology and Social Administration, Addis Ababa University
Introduction
In this paper, an attempt is made, to define socio- economic development in relation to the rights of people. Based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN Declarations and conventions ratified by Ethiopia, and the various laws of the country, including the current constitution of the Federal of Ethiopia, an assessment of the state of socio-economic development is made in relation to the questions of unemployment and its consequences, particularly those of children and youth, the educational condition, the health and nutritional status of the people and the housing condition in the country. All these problems are discussed and analyzed on the basis of available data generated by various governmental agencies, and some United Nations and international bodies operating in the country.
The main purpose of the paper is to reveal how the socio- economic policies of the EPRDF led Government are aggravating the socio-economic conditions of the people in Ethiopia.

THE INSIDER-OUTSIDER DIALECTIC IN NATIVE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY IN PROCESS UNDERSTANDING
ALEXANDER LOCKHART, Department of Sociology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, K9J 7B8.
The pathfinding initiative I wish to discuss is that of the North Coast Tribal Council's 1 effort to become an effective socio-economic development agent for its seven constituent band communities. The chronic problem addressed by this effort is that which Beaver so eloquently identifies in the Report of the National Indian Socio-Economic Development Committee, i.e., how are native development organizations going to avoid replicating the bureaucratic centralism and/or paternalistic approaches of their past masters, given that this past has left such a massive residue of community level distrust and skepticism over any development planning? The area of critical concern is specificly how native administered socio-economic development initiatives are to overcome the inherent conflict between the need to access wider economic opportunities while at the same time guarding and enhancing their own social traditions and cultural identities.

The social impact of economic reconstruction in Vietnam: A selected review
By Do Duc Dinh, Head, Developing Economies Study Department, Institute of World Economy, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Introduction
This literature survey is an attempt to assess the social impact of postwar economic reconstruction in Vietnam. From 1976 to 1986, the first ten years after the reunification of Vietnam, the massive effort required for the reconstruction of war damage and the restructuring of the former planned and centralized economy, left little room for the investigation of social issues.

In 1986, Vietnam embarked on a strategy of overall economic restructuring towards the creation of a market economy, marking the turning point in the process of Vietnam's socio-economic development. Since the beginning of the 1990s, this process has been further strengthened by the adoption of the "Socio-Economic Development Strategy toward the Year 2000". During this period, more attention was given to social policy issues, by both decision-makers as well as researchers. This trend was also reflected in the literature with a greater discussion on social issues, in particular on the general social impact of economic restructuring and the effect on specific groups such as workers and urban dwellers, peasants and the rural population, and on different regions and provinces throughout the country.

ELSES / Partner "Lastes"
Ongoing Ph.D. in Sociology, University NANCY-2: "LES STRATEGIES PARTICIPATIVES ... Local
socio-economic development and democratic participation: where are we now ... http://www.ils.nrw.de/netz/elses/lastes.htm

Regional IT Institute - While many developing countries view the new information handling technologies, such as the Internet, as tools for socio-economic development, they find that these technologies cannot be used in the same ways as in the industrialized countries for which they were designed. http://www.riti.org/Research/gsu.htm